JKriv: “A finished track is better than a perfect track, every single time”

As a producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and co-founder of Brooklyn’s revered Razor-N-Tape label, JKriv has helped shape the sound of underground house and disco for over two decades. A trained jazz musician addicted to crate-digging and a deep admiration for texture, the artist is constantly chasing and creating sounds for dancefloors full of fellow groove obsessives — and can count Disclosure and Gilles Peterson among his fans.

But his latest project, Intuition, hits a little deeper. Completed during JKriv’s treatment for lymphoma in the autumn of 2024, the record is a personal triumph and a reflection of creative resilience. Inspired by the 90s-style sounds of Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Morales, and harnessing his arsenal of analogue synthesizers and talented vocal collaborators, the EP is JKriv’s ode to the sounds that have shaped him.

During a stretch of performances in Europe, we caught up with JKriv to learn more about life as an artist and label boss, how his diagnosis impacted his music-making process, and why he won’t release music that’s been made only on his laptop.

This is your first release back on Razor-N-Tape in 2 years. As a label co-owner, do you feel any tension when working with competing labels?

JKriv: So, I wear two hats: the label co-owner hat and the artist hat. As an artist, I have my own goals — releasing on labels I like and involving myself in things I’d love to be part of. Then I have the goals for the label, but there’s a sort of Venn diagram where they overlap in a certain portion, and I think that spreading some of what I do around helps the label profile, too.

Does that get tough to balance?

JKriv: Yeah. Before what I went through last year, I was starting to feel overloaded and overwhelmed with everything that I committed to. One of the things that I’m trying to do now is say no to some things and make space for the important stuff, so I can give everything important to me the attention that it deserves. And that’s not just music, but other things that are important to me — family, and just taking time for myself.

But to be honest, I love it all. And I get in that situation because I want to do everything — I want to do that remix, I want to do this event, I want to do that gig. And some days it can be self-defeating, because if you feel overwhelmed and you’ve got too much, then you’re not doing any of it — you just kind of shut down. So, yeah, you do have to find the balance, but it’s tough.

Did you intend for your new music to be reflective of last year’s events in your personal life?

JKriv: I wouldn’t say that the music is aesthetically reflective of what I was going through, but it was very important to me to finish it. [I didn’t want it to] not get done because of what I was going through.

I was fortunate to have the energy to work on music, and it really helped me get through the process. So it’s a really meaningful EP to me, in that sense. It was just important to me to feel, mentally and emotionally, that I didn’t let it get the better of me to the point where I didn’t complete the work that I wanted to.

How do you actually get from an idea or sketch to a finished track?

JKriv: Yeah…Finishing music is the hardest part; the start, the inspiration, that’s the fun part. That last 10% is the really challenging part. I think that ‘finished’ is better than ‘perfect’ every single time, so I try to keep that in mind. And another thing to remember: sometimes, a track is not meant to be finished now. Sometimes it sits, and then later, elements of it become useful for something else. I’ve had so many songs that at some point I’ve been like, ‘Oh, you know what? I’ve got that thing I never finished. It’s got the perfect element in there for this new song.’ And I go back and repurpose it into something I’m doing. If you’re organised about the way you keep stuff, then you can do that — and it’s really satisfying when you’re able to do it.

You’re DJing and performing in a ton of cities this year. Are you often making and finishing music on the road, or are you waiting until you’re back in the studio?

JKriv: Very few of my productions go straight from laptop to vinyl. I need to get stuff home. I like to write parts that I can replace later; maybe start with a soft synth emulation, then replace it [with the real thing]. I can build out ideas on a laptop, but they’re never going to be finished ideas. For me, the process involves getting real instruments into a track and potentially collaborating with some people.

The exception to that is edits. I’ll make edits all the time while I’m travelling, and then play them the same night during a DJ set.

The Intuition EP has a lot of 80s- and 90s-style sounds. Do you tend to use the real hardware of the era to create those tones?

JKriv: I have a lot of analogue equipment at home — some synths and drum machines from the era — but I’m not a purist about that. I’m not going to buy a Yamaha CS-80 just because I want a CS-80 sound on there. I feel like, over time, you learn how to work with software instruments and get them to sound the way that you want, through processing.

I just think it’s important to bring stuff out of the box — processing it through hardware, like dynamic processors or effects. That can help music sound a bit more alive and dynamic. But also, if it sounds good, it’s good.

I’m told that Intuition is “a strong statement of how far your sound has travelled in the 2+ years” — what does that mean exactly?

JKriv: This EP, sonically, is a little different from what some people might expect from me. It’s a lot less live instrument-driven; it’s more electronic. My main instruments are bass and guitar, but Intuition is all synthesisers, drum machines and vocals. So it’s a departure, in that sense.

It’s pretty clubby; it’s maybe reflective of the music that I like to DJ. And it’s also in line with the direction that Razor-N-Tape has been going — a bit more modern house and a bit less retro-disco. And it’s got vocal features from two artists that we’ve worked with on the label Megatronic and Pahua, both wonderful artists and singers. I actually sang a little bit myself – I can sing, but I’m not that crazy about my own voice. I’ve actually never sung on a record that I’ve released before. So that’s new.

Speaking of your DJ sets, you tend to gravitate more towards vinyl and rotary mixers…

JKriv: It’s not feasible to schlep let around Europe, but I love records. Vinyl isn’t exactly how I started DJing, but it is the way that I feel the most comfortable these days. If I could play records every gig and know it’s going to be set up perfectly and all the conditions were going to be right, and I didn’t have to break my back dragging them around, then that’s what I would do.

My favourite type of mixer is a rotary mixer. There are a lot of different ones, and they all have their own character. I own two E&S mixers — a two-channel and a four-channel. I’ve had them for 10 or 11 years. We have one in the shop now, in the Razor-N-Tape shop, made by Dima Khramov. It’s a very unique mixer — it’s really beautiful and smooth. You DJ a little bit differently when you play on one of those, compared to playing on a Pioneer DJ mixer.

We’ve seen a rise of hi-fi bars recently, particularly in major cities like New York, which are kitted out with nice rotary mixers and high-end equipment. Do you often visit these venues?

JKriv: I have — they’re popping up all over. It’s a big new outlet and venue for DJs. My feelings about them are a bit mixed. It really depends and varies from one to another. Some of the hi-fi bars end up just being restaurants with a nice sound system. It’s really hard to instil the ethic of listening to the music once people are paying a lot of money for food and drinks, you know? It can be hard to get out of the background music thing.

That said, sometimes that’s cool. Maybe you’re just playing for the people around you, your friends who come and sit down. It’s nice to share music in that way, in a more casual kind of way, that’s less about dancing and partying.

• READ MORE: Inside 5 of New York City’s best hi-fi bars

As someone who’s pretty active in electronic music culture, what do you hope to see more of in clubs and venues?

JKriv: I’d love to see a move back towards dark rooms and more anonymity for the DJ. My least favourite way to play is up on a stage where the focus is directed towards you and less about the energy in the room and people interacting and dancing. I think festival culture has driven that — it’s now about the personality of the DJ and the “performance” they’re giving.

We need more listeners and dancers and less DJs, too. Back in the day, music discovery was a different process. You had to spend money on it. You’d have to go and dig for records and learn the craft of doing it. And now, with digital DJing and digital record collecting, it’s much easier. That’s good, obviously, but also the market is just flooded.

Before we go, I want to ask you about streaming. As an independent label that presses to vinyl, what’s Razor-N-Tape’s approach to modern music consumption?

JKriv: It’s tricky. I don’t want to say it’s a battle that’s been fought and lost. I’m hopeful that there’s a way to change the model a bit. But as a label, we’re working within the parameters of what the system is, and we’re finding a lot of success with streaming. Over time, things start to grow.

[With vinyl], you sell a white label record, you press 1,000 copies, you sell it, and when that’s done, you’re probably not going to repress it. So that’s all the money the artist will make from it, right? Streaming is obviously pennies, but the music will sit there forever. And it grows — you start to see over time how that income stream can build for you and for the artists. So that’s a positive thing.

I would love to see a platform like Bandcamp build out some features that could compete with a streaming service like Spotify. Most people would love to know that the money they’re paying for music is supporting artists a bit more. I think if you gave people the opportunity to do that, they would go for it, and it would be a real success.

Check out the full Razor-N-Tape catalogue and JKriv’s Intuition EP on Bandcamp.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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